A pair of community-minded teenagers will have an extra $1,000 each to put towards their post-secondary futures, as the Sarnia-Lambton Golden K Kiwanis Club presented Great Lakes Secondary School (GLSS) students Sebastien Sheldon and Arran Hamilton with the club's first-ever Key Club scholarships at their June 6 meeting.

The scholarship will be awarded annually to Sarnia-Lambton students who excel academically, provide leadership and volunteer their time both inside and outside of school and have been members of their school's Key Club for two or more years, said Kiwanis member Fern Noel.

Key Clubs are a way that Kiwanis engages youth, providing high school-aged students with opportunities to develop their leadership and organizational skills while preparing them to serve in the community after their academic careers are finished.

Kiwanis Clubs support over 5,000 Key Clubs in 37 countries around the world. Both Northern Collegiate and GLSS have Key Clubs in their schools, sponsored by the Seaway Kiwanis and the Golden K Kiwanis Clubs respectively.

This year's batch of applicants for Golden K's new award was exceptional, Noel said.

“This is the first time we are giving out these awards and we had six applicants and all of them were 90-plus (average) students, so it was tough to decide but we ended up with two equally qualified winners,” he said. “The plan was to have just one winner, but we had these two, who were both just so impressive, so we gathered up the money to cover both scholarships.”

Both Sheldon and Hamilton have been active and generous in volunteering their time for worthy causes, Noel said, whether through organizing a Halloween Movie Night charity fundraiser for St. Clair Child and Youth Services, gathering shoes for the Soles4Souls project or honing their skills at Key Club Leader camps.

Along with their proclivity for giving back to their community, this year's winners have also gained from their involvement in Key Club, Noel said.

“What's been thrilling is that we've been able to see the impact that our club has had on the life of these kids,” he said. “It's just been amazing to watch these kids grow. It's wonderful, really.”

Sheldon and Great Lakes principal Paul Wiesma accepted the scholarships at the club's June 6 meeting. Sheldon, who will start his studies in forensic science at Trent University this fall, said he was grateful for the award.

“I feel really proud,” he said. “I wasn't necessarily expecting to get something out of volunteering and leading, it was just something that I wanted to do. But I'm happy that I made something out of myself through this work.”

“I've just become a better person,” he said. “I'm much happier with myself and who I am now. I'm much better with people – I didn't used to be very open or confident or helpful to others, but now I am. So the club has really helped me a lot.”

Wiesma said both students had made a profound impact on their school and their community.

“We're very proud of Sebastien,” he said. “He exemplifies the type of student we like to have at Great Lakes Secondary School. He's been very involved in the community. And Arran was also very much a student leader, a great volunteer and just a great young lady that we would want students to follow in the footsteps of.”

“We very much appreciate the partnership with the Golden K Kiwanis Club,” Wiesma added. “It's been excellent.”